[B-Greek] APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETIVE CONTEXT re: APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU

Richard W. Wilson rwwilson147 at swbell.net
Wed Nov 9 10:55:25 EST 2005


I know many of us are skating the fringes of the solid ice of B-Greek 
protocols, but big picture issues of textual interpretation can perhaps 
avoid falling through. (Hence the change in subject)

So, Elizabeth Kline reasserts the importance of interpretive context. 
While "the central idea of apocalyptic" may reasonably be characterized 
as something like "the unveiling of [the] divine plan which was 
established APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU," this doesn't really eliminate the 
possibility that aspects of "The Book," or Books, are still being 
written, or are written when they are revealed. To whit, individual and 
particular detailed aspects of those books are never said to be written 
en toto at creation in the biblical texts I have seen. This is 
especially the case with our texts here (Rev 13:8 and 17:8) that merely 
say names have NOT been written from the foundations of the world and 
nothing in particular about the names that have been written.

OK, here is a B-Greek question: If there is a text that makes an 
absolutist assertion about God's pre-writing of history please point us 
to that text and we'll unpack it.

I am no stranger to the study of "second temple" apocalyptic 
litererature and its influence on the NT. We post-biblical thinkers are 
rather prone to over-rationalize hebraic/jewish biblical thought into a 
(sometimes theo-)logical box that doesn't do justice to the paradoxical 
nuances of the thought world in which they lived. So, I am inclined to 
think that it is a bit presumptuous to camp out on one end of the 
spectrum regarding what is written APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU.

I'm open to being persauded otherwise, but I haven't yet seen any 
biblical text that asserts an absolute foreknowing or foredetermining of 
everything by God prior to or at creation. That God is seen as working 
everything out according to his purposes, that all that happens is 
allowed to happen, that he will even determine the outcome of all future 
events may be clear, but when all things are known and determined is 
another matter.

Yours in Christ,
Richard Wilson

-- Richard W. Wilson, BA, MCS, MA; Our Net Services, St. Louis, MO




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